Green Buildings

In New York City, our buildings are responsible for the overwhelming share of GHG emissions. The energy we use in our homes, schools, workplaces, stores and public facilities accounts for nearly three-quarters of our contribution to climate change. We can reduce these emissions by upgrading the City's buildings to make them more energy efficient.

Building upon the progress of GGBP, the City released a green buildings plan, One City: Built to Last, a ten-year action plan to improve the energy efficiency of our buildings by 2025. The flagship program for private buildings announced in the plan is the NYC Retrofit Accelerator, which will provide coordinated outreach and assistance to help private building owners and decision-makers accelerate efficiency retrofits and clean energy investments using Local Law 87 data. Additional initiatives include establishing our public buildings models for sustainability, strengthening requirements for new construction and renovations, ensuring benefits shared by New Yorkers in every neighborhood, and launching the Buildings Technical Working Group and technical study to determine next steps for the building sector to reach the City’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 80 percent by 2050 compared to 2005 levels.

With One City: Built to Last and our other green building initiatives, we will make our homes more affordable, improve the quality of New York City's air, and create a thriving market for energy efficiency and renewable energy--with new jobs and new businesses.